On 14 June 2017, Steve Scalise, House Majority Whip and Louisiana Congressman, was wounded by a gunman – small businessman James Hodgkinson, 66 – who opened fire at a baseball park in Alexandria, VA where several legislators and their aides were practicing. Gun violence in America is more prevalent than in any other country in the world. However, instead of treating gun violence as a public health crisis, many politicians, including the unfortunate victim of gun violence congressman Scalise, remain steadfastly defenders of espousing the legislative agenda of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and gun manufacturers.
While Scalise and three others were the tragic victims of gun violence, the conservative lawmaker has been in the forefront of supporting initiatives for easing any restrictions on weapons, including laws on concealed guns, purchasing and carrying across state lines. Along with half of the Louisiana House delegation, Scalise voted against an Obama sponsored bill, which ultimately passed, intended to protect victim of sexual assault, domestic violence and staking. Although there must be the strongest possible condemnation for what happened to Scalise on 14 June 2017, the way to deal with it effectively is through the legislative process so that others would not be victimized as he was by a gunman clearly not of sound mind and driven by a psychology of violence prevalent in society.
www.countercurrents.org/…
Quite fortunately, Hodgkinson was a very poor marksman. However, he appears to have made up for this defect by using an assault weapon which vigorously spat out great numbers of bullets and made it possible for him to hit some of his targets. Thanks to the efforts of Scalise to stop any possible ban of such a weapon, Hodgkinson had very easy access to attacking Scalise in this way.
Also, it is my understand that only one bullet struck Scalise but it seems to have done an enormous amount of damage for a single bullet. I don’t know what you call these sorts of bullets but I do know that these projectiles splat out and twist and turn their way through their targets, inflicting a great deal of damage. I call these bullets “splat bullets” but I am sure any number of gun nuts who know everything about guns and ammo will be happy to correct me and sneer as they tell me the correct term.
Scales undoubtedly not only opposed the banning of assault weapons, I am very sure that he opposed the banning of these noxious bullets which make up for poor markmanship by ripping targets apart, as well as opposing the banning of huge magazines of bullets which enable poor marksmen to pop off scores of bullets to make up for their ineptitude.
Scalise will never have the smarts to realize that it’s stupid to make such weaponry and ammunition easily available, even though he has suffered greatly as a result of his blindness and stupidity, so it falls upon us grownups to press for more sensible gun control.